Some time ago a friend asked me whether I liked gin and I had to say that I didn’t; whisky is my favourite spirit, but I would never so no to a cognac, an Armagnac or a vodka… and some tequila too! Not altogether in the same glass, obviously! There is just something perfumy and nasty about gin to my taste… however, sloe gin is fine so maybe I need it to be flavoured. I ruminated on this with my friend and she asked if I had tried marmalade gin. I hadn’t and i was a little reserved in my enthusiasm, but she very kindly gave me a bottle with about 10cl in it to take home and try at an appropriate time.
Which i did, sharing with my beloved of course… and it was wonderful – delicious! I decided to have a go at making some with the left over gin I had from using it with sloes, and it was brilliant! It is a beautiful golden colour and is not sweet and sickly but has a nice bitter flavour and since we put black treacle in our marmalade there was that lovely brunt caramel undertone to it. Shortly after making our 2014 marmalade we bought a bottle of gin and measuring precisely this time, 50cl to a small jar of marmalade we’re doing it again. We used the other 50cl with a jar of vintage 2012 marmalade… I’ll let you know the result!
Lois Elsden 